A rocky hill on the continuous ejecta of Ziwei crater revealed by the Chang’e-3 mission

The Chinese Chang’e-3 mission landed close to the eastern rim of the ~450 m diameter Ziwei crater. Regional stratigraphy of the landing site and impact excavation model suggest that the bulk continuous ejecta deposits of the Ziwei crater are composed by Erathothenian-aged mare basalts. Along the traverse of the Yutu rover, the western segment features a gentle topographic uplift(~0.5 m high over ~4 m), which is spatially connected with the structurally-uplifted crater rim. Assuming that this broad topographic uplift has physical properties discontinuous with materials below, we use data returned by the high-frequency lunar penetrating radar onboard the Yutu rover to estimate the possible range of relative permittivity for this topographic uplift. Only when the relative permittivity is ~9 is the observed radar reflection consistent with the observed topography, suggesting that the topographic uplift is composed of basaltic blocks that were excavated by the Ziwei crater. This result is consistent both with the impact excavation model that predicts deeper basaltic materials being deposited closer to the crater rim, and with observation of numerous half-buried boulders on the surface of this hill. We note that this study is the first to use topography and radargram data to estimate the relative permittivity of lunar surface uplifts, an approach that has had many successful applications on Mars. Similar approaches can apply other ground penetrating radar data for the Moon, such as will be available from the ongoing Chang’e-4 mission.

A new method for resolving phase ambiguity in radio interferometry using Earth rotation synthesis

As a key technique in deep space navigation, radio interferometry can be used to determine the accurate location of a spacecraft in the plane-of-sky by measuring its signal propagation time delay between two remote stations. To improve the measurement accuracy, differential phase delay without phase ambiguity is usually desired. Aiming at the difficulties of resolving phase ambiguity with few stations and narrowband downlink signals, a new method is proposed in this work by taking advantage of the Earth rotation. The high accurate differential phase delay between the spacecraft and a calibrator can be achieved not only in the in-beam observation mode but also in the out-of-beam observation mode. In this paper we firstly built the model of phase ambiguity resolution. Then, main measurement errors of the model are analyzed, which is followed by tests and validations of the model and method using the tracking data of the Cassini mission and Chang'E-3 mission. The results show that the phase ambiguities can be correctly resolved to generate a 10-picosecond level accuracy differential phase delay. Angular measurement accuracy of the Cassini reaches the milli-arc-second level, and the relative position accuracy between the Chang'E-3 rover and lander reaches the meter level.

In-situ lunar dust deposition amount induced by lander landing in Chang’E-3 mission

China first in-situ lunar dust experiment is performed by a lunar dust detector in Chang’E-3 mission. The existed dust(less than 20 μm in diameter) properties, such as levitation, transportation and adhesion, are critical constraints for future lunar exploration program and even manned lunar exploration. Based on the problems discussed above, the in-situ lunar dust detector is originally designed to characterize dust deposition properties induced by lander landing as a function of environmental temperature, solar incident angle and orbit short circuit current on the northern Mare Imbrium, aiming to study lunar dust deposition properties induced by lander landing in depth. This paper begins with a brief of introduction of Chang’E-3 lunar dust detector design,followed by a series of experimental analysis of this instrument under different influencing factors, and concludes with lunar dust mass density deposition amount observed on the first lunar day is about 0.83 mg/cm^2, which is less than that observed in Apollo 11 mission because the landing site of Chang’E-3 has the youngest mare basalts comparing with previous Apollo and lunar landing sites. The young geologic environment is less weathered and thus it has thinner layer of lunar dust than Apollo missions’;hence, the amount of kicked-up lunar dust in Chang’E-3 mission is less than that in Apollo 11 mission.